Automated braking functions which are part of an autonomous driving vehicle, or a vehicle having an autonomous driving function, use sensors such as radar, laser, or cameras to detect objects that could cause potential collisions. These objects could be other vehicles, pedestrians or other objects. These braking functions apply braking to avoid an imminent collision with any of these objects without any driver input. Automatic braking is designed to function as a backup co-pilot that is always paying attention to road objects and braking on these collision-potential objects, even if the driver is not. It doesn't take away the responsibility of the driver the use the brakes to avoid collisions or slow the vehicle down, but it can support the driver to intervene in situations where the driver is distracted or fails to react quickly enough when traffic suddenly slows or stops, or an obstacle appears too quickly on the road ahead. Distracted driving is an issue for many drivers, which is not an issue for an automated braking function, but rather the automated braking function is constantly monitoring the road ahead and providing adequate braking at the desired time and with the sufficient magnitude of force.
Automated braking functions cannot achieve a 100% braking robustness and effectiveness. There are times where faults in the system function may occur which causes a risk leading to a safety hazard. The most safety-critical faults are those that lead to the inability or not decelerate sufficiently or even do not decelerate at all, increasing the risk of colliding with one or more objects.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a braking system which is able to detect when there are faults in the braking system, and still provide sufficient braking functionality.